Mr. B's - A Bartolotta Steakhouse - Brookfield — Restaurant in Brookfield

Subject: Mr. B's Brookfield: From Loyal Patron to Utter Disgust - A Culinary Catastrophe and a Reward System Hostage Situation To Whom It May Concern (though frankly, my concern for your establishment has evaporated like a cheap steak on a hot grill),

After countless visits, numerous celebratory dinners, and a loyalty that was clearly taken for granted, my recent experience at your Brookfield location has left me utterly appalled and vowing never to darken your doorstep again – a vow I intend to uphold with the fervor of a religious zealot renouncing false idols.

Let's begin with the centerpiece of your supposed steakhouse: my father's ribeye. To call it "tough" is an insult to leather hides and shoe soles. The struggle he endured attempting to cut through that sinewy mass resembled a lumberjack wrestling a stubborn oak. It was patently obvious this wasn't the quality of meat one expects, or used to expect, from an establishment bearing the Bartolotta name. This wasn't a steak; it was an affront to bovine sacrifice.

However, the culinary disappointment was merely a prelude to the financial slap in the face that followed. Upon presenting my bill, I was informed of a new, frankly extortionate, policy regarding my hard-earned rewards. Having accumulated over $500 through years of patronage – money I had every right to utilize as I saw fit, often rolling over the balance or using a portion – I was told it was now an all-or-nothing proposition. Either I surrendered my entire reward balance in one fell swoop, or I received absolutely no benefit from my loyalty. This isn't a rewards program; it's a hostage situation for your most dedicated customers!

The sheer audacity of this policy change left me dumbfounded and frankly, insulted. To be strong-armed into relinquishing my entire accumulated benefit in one go, rather than having the flexibility I've experienced in the past, speaks volumes about your newfound disregard for customer satisfaction.

As I, a long-standing and clearly valued customer (or so I foolishly believed), made my exit in disgust, I encountered another manager. Upon recounting this ludicrous rewards policy, their immediate response was one of contradiction, stating unequivocally that this was not how the system should operate and that I should be able to use my rewards as desired. This internal inconsistency only added fuel to the fire of my already considerable rage.

The fact that your own management seems unaware of or disagrees with this clearly customer-hostile policy is indicative of a chaotic and poorly communicated operational structure.

So, Mr. B's Brookfield, consider this not just a bad review, but a farewell address. You have successfully transformed a loyal patron, someone on the cusp of their 100th visit, into a vehemently dissatisfied ex-customer. Your tough steak was an insult, but your predatory rewards policy was the final, unforgivable blow.

You won't be seeing my business again. Consider this my absolute, unwavering, and thoroughly mean review....

Mr. B’s is heralded as the crown jewel of the Bartolotta Restaurant empire in Milwaukee. I’ve been to a couple of their other restaurants, which were okay but none of them ever blew me away. With the reviews I’ve read, we had to give it a try. Known for their steaks, when I sat down at our table in the middle of their beautiful restaurant, I knew I was in for a treat. Or so I thought.

We wanted to try the steak tartare as we'd heard raving reviews but due to Valentine’s Day, they were on a limited menu. Seeing as though nothing else jumped off the menu at us, we just ordered a larger entreès.

I ordered the surf & turf; a lobster tail and medium rare 12oz filet. The misses ordered a medium rare filet and shrimp scampi. Both entrees were served with blanched/buttered spinach and stuffed potato. Neither was cooked the way we ordered. We sent hers back as it was a blue rare when she ordered medium rare, whereas mine was medium and approaching medium well. I believe mine sat in the window for a bit as the steak was room temperature, as was the spinach. The protein on both dishes was bland at best. The problem with that, beyond the obvious, is when you decide to let the quality of the meat do the talking, you better have the best quality cuts around. I didn’t find this to be the case. My filet wasn’t necessarily tough but it wasn’t even remotely close the melt in your mouth tenderness that I’ve come to expect from a higher end steakhouse. We took our first bites, looked at each other and put our forks down. We talked about it for a bit. You may have noticed I didn’t mention anything about the lobster, well, there’s not much to say. It was cold, chewy and that’s about it. Unmemorable? Forgettable even?

The shrimp scampi was fantastic and the highlight of the meal, all four pieces of it.

At first I discounted our disappointment to the fact that were are critical people that know good food. We both travel with our jobs and have been fortunate enough to dine at some choice venues. At the same token, we’re aware of the types of restaurants we’re in and adjust our expectations appropriately. I expected nothing less than amazing from Mr. B’s. They feel horribly short of meeting anything that resembled a great meal.

You may be asking your self, why didn’t I say something. I’m an extremely busy guy, travel a ton for work and she’s in school full time and works full time. Getting out for a night like together this is a rarity with kids. So going to dinner and complaining about it, really just sets the tone for a less than stellar evening. I pulled out my card, and paid the $200 bill with reluctance. To add to that, someone in the dining room had a heart attack and an ambulance came, so there was that to contend with. I will give Mr. B’s two accolades: their servers are top notch and the building is beautiful.

I sent them this review in an email prior to posting. I always believe in giving the opportunity to correct things. Five days later I'm posting as no response was...

My wife and I live very close by, and have often stopped in at Mr. B's for happy hour and stop in a few times a year for dinner. Most of the time, the food and atmosphere are pretty good, steaks cooked correctly, etc.

However, the last time my wife and I went to Mr. B's, we decided to order take out (We each ordered chicken Caesar salads and their lobster bisque, which is fantastic) and walk over to pick it up. When we called, we were told the food would be ready in about 30 minutes. When we arrived at about the 30 minute mark, we had to wait about 10 minutes to get our food. Not a big deal. When we got home, we realised that there was no chicken on our salads and called them up (we also noted that the serving sizes for both the soup and salad were very small, but hey, what do you expect from a steakhouse). Since we did pay for the chicken on our salads, we decided to go back and get the chicken added to our salads. The hostess we spoke to said they would start the chicken right away and would add it to our salads when we arrived. We got there a few minutes later, handed them our take out bag (which still had the 2 bisques in it as well) and waited for them to finish cooking the chicken breast and add it to our salads. The manager came out after 20 minutes and said it was taking a while to cook the chicken and suggested we get a drink at the bar. We just wanted our food so we could leave. He went back to finish the salads. After 10 more minutes we got our food back. We asked if they had swapped out our soup for hotter soup (it had been about an hour since we originally got it) and they said no. We asked that they replace the soup with fresh soup and they came back 5 minutes later with (possibly) different soup. After we got back to our house we opened our soup and found that not only were our soups lukewarm, but were very underfilled (see picture).

All in all, it was a terrible experience. I would give them 1 star but usually the experience is 3-5 star worthy, so I'll give...